FILMFARE, July 2015

“Mommy knows best”

There are no half measures when Lara Dutta talks. It’s straight from the heart. Without giving it a second thought, the actor on a comeback confesses her career is still not top priority. That honour is safe and secure with her domestic life. Her frankness extends to her co-stars and colleagues as well. She’s all praise for longtime friends Akshay Kumar and Priyanka Chopra. The warmth only doubles when she speaks of husband Mahesh Bhupathi and daughter Saira. Every bit of her focus is devoted to her better half and child. But that doesn’t mean she’s step motherly towards acting. She makes sure she gives it her all when it comes to performing on the set… (Read more…)

THE MAN, February 2014

“A Housefull of Sizzle”

Bollywood star and former Ms. Universe Lara Dutta talks about her designing career, happy being a tennis WAG, her daughter Saira and why Deepika Padukone will be a superstar.When sizzlers Priyanka Chopra and Lara Dutta began their career-winning, Ms World and Ms Universe titles respectively in 2000, little did the latter know that holy domesticity would beckon, while her contemporary would be cutting musical albums. “I feel the younger lot now is savvier, much smarter than us. Though I am sure actresses before us thought the same about us,” smiles Lara dressed in self-designed… (Read more…)

HARPER’S BAZAAR, July-August 2011

“Game, set, match for Lara Dutta”

Jet-lagged from her Paris flight and with an upset stomach to boot, Lara Dutta Bhupathi is not quite feeling her best. Yet she indulges in light banter with the Bazaar team, often breaking into her characteristic throaty chuckle. This is Lara’s second time on the cover of Bazaar, and the setting this time is very different. It’s in the hustle and bustle of Mumbai’s Mehboob Studio that this former Miss Universe finds herself in, and from the look of things, she’s having fun. “It was fantastic. We went for a completely different look. It was a bit challenging because I got food poisoning on the way here, but it’s always a pleasure to shoot for Bazaar,” she says graciously…(Read more…)

GRAZIA, May 2011

“Happily Ever After…”

The sun is at its zenith on this hot Sunday afternoon. It’s so bright, it’s impossible to look directly at the whitewashed walls against which Lara Dutta casually leans, poised in six inch heels. She’s in super-tight, white skinny jeans, and a cobalt blue chequered shirt, knotted at the waist, her tan midriff the only relief against the bleached setting. An occasional movement throws a spark in our direction; as she turns for Chothia’s camera, the M&M-sized diamond on her finger blinds us. It’s on everyone’s mind. And we’re all trying very hard to act nonchalant about it. It’s 33-year-old Dutta’s first shoot after her wedding… (Read more…)

FEMINA, November 2010

“Lara, in Love”

Her relationships have made more news than her films. But whether it was breaking up with long time boyfriend Kelly or dating childhood friend Dino, Lara has always kept mum, letting people draw their own conclusion. However now that she’s found The One in Mahesh Bhupathi, Lara is ready to break her oath of silence. Aarthi Gunnpuri plays eager listener. The first thing that I notice about Lara when I meet her is the striking difference between the woman standing in front of me now and the girl that I had met, just four years ago at a Femina cover shoot. There’s no trace of the chirpy, happy-go-lucky girl who had fallen asleep on the floor while …(Read more…)

FHM, October 2010

“The One Who Got Away”

Good news is Lara Dutta is the old school girl you wouldn’t need new rules of dating for. The bad news is – she’s spoken for. Lara Dutta’s eyes widen for two very long seconds; she gaps as her engagement ring slips out from her publicist’s hand and falls to the floor. And then she smiles. We’re shooting at Rockstar Yogi Photographer (equal parts of all three) Suresh Natarajan’s sea-facing studio. And by shooting we mean, they’re shooting, we’re hanging around trying our damndest best to look nonchalant, to make conversation and crack jokes. And failing miserably in all three. Half an hour later… Lunch is being ordered – Chinese.(Read more…)

VERVE, July 2010

“I have always fought against being labelled”

Fashion shows and film award functions…fitness regimes and instant indulgences…the business of Bollywood and holistic living… new friends and old relationships…. Her life is a mosaic of myriad hues that turn her calendar into a whirligig of experiences. Refusing to be categorised into a box, the willowy Lara Dutta tells Shraddha Jahagirdar-Saxena that she wants to break through all barriers that are holding her back, to just be. Lara Dutta’s back to base, fresh from a short sojourn in Colombo, where she co-hosted the International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) Awards ceremony for the fifth time… (Read more…)

FILMFARE, April 2010

“Advantage Mahesh”

Sports and films make for a merry romance. Lara Dutta finds herself in the throes of it, writes Ashwini Deshmukh. Oh yes, the actress is also ready to direct her first film. She’s just back from an outdoor schedule and is packing her valises for another. She’s off to Paris to model for Louis Vuitton at the Paris Fashion Week. “Once a model, always a model,”she says excitedly. Clearly Lara Dutta is bustling with activity. There are hazaar things to do before she can zoom off to Paris. She has to make arrangements for her dogs, look after minute things around her house, the works. For the time being, she’s packed off her… (Read more…)

VOGUE, March 2010

“My Fair Lady”

She’s smart, she’s funny. And she can talk fashion all day. PRIYANKA KHANNA discovers the beauty queen who is now a Bollywood style icon: the fabulous LARA DUTTA. As locations ago, shooting at Eassel World in definitely a first for both Vogue and our cover girl, Lara Dutta. The kitschy theme park in a distant. Mumbai suburb is an unusual choice for showcasing the best of the new season. It’s a warm day and Dutta is being styled in some serious body-com dresses. If there’s any discomfort, she doesn’t make it obvious, as she preens and pouts seductively for the camera. “It was the first time I’d been there, Missile-like mosquitoes and what… (Read more…)

HARPER’S BAZAAR, December 2009

“I don’t want to take safe route”

Sharks, The Bahamas, Akshay Kumar and Rs 100 crore (or more) were no match for an itsy bitsy teenie weeny reason to watch Blue. Lara in bikini smouldered on screen. In perhaps the best shape of her career, the former Miss Universe stole the thunder from Bollywood’s a two-piece than she got in the swimwear round of the Miss Universe contest in 2000. The underwater adventure film might not have left a lasting impression, but Lara certainly did. “When I agreed to be in the film, the last thing on my mind was how many people are going to watch it because I am in a swimsuit. Only when I got to the Bahamas did I realise that nothing must jiggle…” (Read more…)

GQ, December 2009

“The Original of Lara”

Lara Dutta, India’s most original and eloquent beauty queen, strips down and opens up – about Bangalore’s long lost Jazz Age, New York and why you should be funny. You grew up in Bangalore. How do you feel about how the city has changed? “It has changed tremendously. It was the nicest place you could have to grow up in the Eighties – all these wide open spaces. My sisters are much older than me, and I grew up hanging out with them more than I did with my own friends, so even at 16, I was thinking like someone in their twenties. So I loved the whole jazz culture, the club culture that existed in Bangalore…” (Read more…)

ELLE, November 2009

“Mistress Of The Universe”

Lara Dutta looks fairly imposing up close. I wonder if it’s my diminutive size of or the bulky, exotic dress that Lara is draped in. We are at ace photographer Suresh Natarajan’s top-floor studio – a large, cosy, barn-like space overlooking Mumbai’s latest pride, the new Bandra-Worli sea link. Lara is posing for the ELLE cover; a strenuous task that involves pirouetting in dramatic, designer clothes while looking ultra-ravishing and seductive. Right now she is wearing a voluminous, multi-layered, black-and-white Dolce & Gabbana dress with huge Marilyn Monroe motifs sketched all over. Which makes it one sexy icon on top of another… (Read more…)

CINEBLITZ, September 2009

“She shall not be moved…”

Shockingly, it has been around a year now that I have been trying to pin down the pretty Chiquita Lara Dutta for a Q&A session. After all, a lot has been brewing in her life… A break-up with long-time beau Kelly Dorji, followed by and alleged link-up with Dino Morea; followed by a supposed break-up with him too. Plus a suddenly vibrant career. There was a lot to talk about; however our meeting just never happened. Her movie shoots kept her busy and the little time she did for herself, she chose to devote to doing cover interviews only. Finally, it was Big Pictures that managed to connect us just before the release of… (Read more…)

STARDUST, June 2009

“Lara Dutta & The Art of Love”

Interviews, photo-shoots, soirees and air kissing are mundane elements of hack’s life. After a point, everything becomes predictable and boring but when you have an enchantingly off kilter beauty in a mini dress effortlessly romancing the camera right in front of your eyes, it is a visual, which is difficult to erase from the mind’s dictionary. Spunky and spirited, Lara Dutta is not just another celluloid goddess. The sultry siren with impossibly long legs and butt that would give complex to Jennifer Lopez about her own envied one, reminds you of a supermodel as she messes up her hair adding to the androgynous allure and stands tall in the achingly… (Read more…)

COMPLETE WELLBEING, April 2009

“I love being me.”

The youngest-ever United Nations Population Fund [UNFPA] ambassador is also one of the most beautiful women in the universe. Lara Dutta, beauty queen, actor, and a grounded and compassionate human being, goes on a self-exploration trip with Roma Kapadia. Tell us something about Lara, the person. For starters, I love being me. I take good care of myself because I think it is a big part of being yourself. Also, I think the older one gets the more one needs to care for oneself. I don’t smoke or drink [I never have]. I am a pure vegetarian and believe in a holistic approach to good health. I avoid taking allopathic drugs unless… (Read more…)

MAN’S WORLD, February 2009

“The Unachievable Desire”

Lara Dutta is a 5’8″ beauty with a pretty yet sensual face, legs that look like they’ve been sculpted by Da Vinci and a body worthy of a Bond film. Yet, as she walks around Famous Studios in Mumbai in high heels and a dress that fits so snugly to her body it’s like it were painted on, I am almost ashamed to fantasise about her. I feel like I haven’t deserved it. Who am I, a pathetic, unshaven journalist, to even dream of being anywhere close to the legs of this elegant princess who makes posing in front of the camera look like the lost art of the Egyptians. When I meet Lara in the changing room later, my nerves suddenly transform me into… (Read more…)

HELLO!, October 2007

“A fresh look at The New ‘IT’ girl of Bollywood”

Welcoming HELLO! into her breezy, boho apartment in suburban Mumbai, Lara Dutta opens the door in a crisp white T-shirt and jeans. She is dressed like the archetypal girl-next-door, but still exudes the easy elegance that won her the Miss Universe crown nearly a decade ago. For a while, she has been one of the many PYTs on-the-make, but now there is a perceptible glow about Lara. And it certainly doesn’t come out of the make-up box. Bring up the recent success of ‘Jhoom Barabar Jhoom’, and you hear a blossoming actress: “I noticed a change in people when I went for the movie’s trial show.” (Read more…)

MAXIM, April 2006

„Luscious Lara”

When we walked in we found this Ex-Miss Universe and Bollywood hottie lying on the floor, waiting to be questioned. That’s right, we were just born lucky. So are you the permanent Bollywood Boustier Babe crooning away in film after film? Not really. See me crooning in ‘Zinda’. I look more like Batman rather than Boustier Babe there. When did you realise men were going a bit cross-eyed gawking at you? In nursery actually! I realised I was not really attractive but I did have a way with men. What is sexy food for you? Strawberries dipped in chocolate… mmm! Food that absolutely turns you off? Karela! (Read more…)

FILMFARE, July 2002

“Lara Dutta is bitten by the film bug”

Initionlly she was reluctent to join the films, but after a year she is there. Yes former Miss Universe Lara Dutta has also signed a film with Akshay Kumar, for iDream. I met the model turend actress at her residence, where she is staying with her boyfriend Kelly Dorje. She has pulled her leg massal and going through seviour pain.“It’s not all that bad as it was. Now I can rome around in the house.” She smiles and comes to the point staright away, and insist that she wasn’t reluctent at all. Since she was miss Universe in 2000-2001 she has to work according the rules and the regulations of the Miss Universe… (Read more…)

FILMFARE, December 2001

“Year of livin’ & lovin’ dangerously”

Click, khashaak. A Polariod pic shows off her dancing eyes and hair cascading like a waterfall. To the camera born, she pops expressions faster than the flashbulbs. Parachuting into an itsy-bitsy mini-skirt, she demures, “Hey guys, my Punjabi thighs will fill up the frame.” Fiqar not. She chills and completes the photo-shoot. Khashaak. Cut to tomorrow afternoon. Lara Dutta’s just back from a strenuous workout. “My legs are aching, my trainer’s very strict,” she oohs. “But it’s gotta be this way, this is the only exercise I can manage to keep my body in shape.” The former Ms Universe is in Mumbai… (Read more…)

FILMFARE, September 2000

“Universal appeal…”

You could see it coming from miles away. The knowing, pursed lips and radiant skin dramatically back-lit in an eight by ten glossy. And the confidence she oozed. Boy! I remember Shah Rukh Khan averring, while judging the Femina Miss India contest, “She’s typical Miss Universe material. She’s got a lot of poise.” He was dead-on. She won the Miss India title… only to conquer the Universe a few months later. And today, while everyone’s still copying her look, she’s cleverly choosing vocations that shatter the air-head stereotype. But for now, Lara Dutta, Miss Universe, is content just to ride the… (Read more…)